Sunday morning, Takashi lay sprawled on his bed in a starfish pose, his face full of despair.
His phone rested on his face like a white sheet over a corpse.
Bzzz bzzz~
The phone vibrated.
Takashi raised his arm like a claw machine, clamping the phone between his thumb and middle finger. He slowly lifted it to eye level.
Kei: [Senpai, can I invite you to watch this sumr's fireworks festival with ?]
[You have a new ssage]
[Temporary Event: Brilliant Fireworks Festival.
Spring and sumr, the romance of fireworks blossoms in every corner. Set out on a dazzling sumr night's rendezvous to experience an endless visual feast.]
[Event Period: July 6 – July 31]
...
[Rewards can be stacked and will be distributed cumulatively.]
"So I had a system after all."
Takashi finished reading the system event announcent, and with a loud "smack!", his phone dropped heavily onto his face.
Counting Kei, this was the thirteenth girl to invite him to watch the fireworks festival together.
Tch, getting to see fireworks thirteen tis in one sumr—just the thought of it should make a guy jump for joy, right?
Watching the sa movie thirteen tis in a row—who the hell would be happy about that?
The real problem was that Takashi couldn't even say no.
Because every girl inviting him was a "points-rich lady." Just like a porridge shop can't refuse stinky feet, Takashi couldn't resist these kinds of temptations either.
Actually, physically attending thirteen firework shows in a month wouldn't be too much for him.
The problem wasn't whether he could physically handle it—it was where he could even find thirteen fireworks festivals.
He had already looked it up. This year, there were only fourteen fireworks festivals across Japan.
Tokyo only had four. Chiba had two.
The two in Chiba were manageable: Eriri and Shizuka.
But Tokyo had four, and how the hell was he supposed to split that between Narii, Hitomi, Kotonoha, Maki, Nagisa, Kei, Komi Shoko, Yotsuba, Marin, Ryuju Momo, and Watanabe Akari?
You might as well just split him instead.
And that girl Watanabe Akari—he'd practically forgotten who she even was, yet she suddenly sent a ssage out of nowhere:
[Wanna go to the fireworks festival together?]
And bam, the system triggered a quest.
Takashi has figured it out now.
This system didn't turn anyone down.
As long as the person was a "target," the system would trigger a mission with them.
If he turned into a playboy, the system would be at least 99.9% to bla.
Why was it a dating system, and not a pure love system?
Takashi couldn't understand why a pure-hearted romantic like himself would end up with this kind of player system.
It didn't even fit his character at all.
As Takashi wrestled with the mystery, his phone buzzed on his face again.
He figured it was another girl inviting him out, but when he picked it up, it was actually a call from Otani Shota.
"Yo."
"Takashi, are you here yet?"
"Here for what?"
Takashi didn't imdiately catch on.
"You bastard, didn't you promise to co watch the Koshien preliminaries with ? You're ditching again!"
Now that he thought about it… he had promised sothing like that.
"Kidding, I'm already on my way."
Takashi unwillingly crawled out of bed.
It was one of his rare days off, and his laziness kicked in—he just wanted to lie down for a bit longer.
"Really? Then where are you now?"
"Just around the corner. Stop rushing ."
As Takashi opened the door, a wave of heat slamd into him.
The scorching sumr sun scorched the earth. The air was thick with the weight of sumr, making it hard to breathe—as if the whole city had turned into one giant stear.
"Can I not go? It's way too hot. I don't want to leave the house."
In weather like this, Takashi didn't want to take a single step away from his air-conditioned room.
Going out to et rich girls was one thing. eting a sweaty guy? No thanks.
"I knew it! You haven't left yet!"
Otani Shota's booming voice nearly burst through the phone, and Takashi reflexively pulled the phone away from his ear.
"And don't forget, you're still officially a mber of the baseball club!"
"We agreed back then—I was just a nominal mber."
Aoba High didn't have strict requirents for club mber numbers. As long as there were three, a club could be ford.
But the more mbers a club had, the more funding they could get from the student council.
That's why, every year during the freshman orientation, you'd see tons of clubs working themselves to death under the blazing sun trying to recruit people.
It was all about the funding.
No one cared if a student signed up for multiple clubs at once.
For example, Takashi was signed up for the baseball club, soccer club, and kendo club, but he'd never actually attended baseball or soccer practice.
The coaches of those clubs didn't care, either. In fact, they were planning to use Takashi as a marketing tool next sester to recruit more mbers.
It's like if a movie promoted itself with posters of Shen Teng front and center, but when you showed up at the theater, he was barely in it—you'd feel totally scamd.
"Koshien preliminaries, what's there to even watch?"
Forget Koshien—he didn't even watch the Champions League or the World Cup anymore.
Buy a ball, go to sleep.
Though, to be fair, his luck has been terrible lately. He kept losing his Happy Beans.
"When you guys make it to Koshien, I promise I'll co watch."
Takashi wasn't even lying.
If they really did make it to Koshien, he'd have to go.
It wouldn't even matter if he wanted to or not—the school would organize the students to go support them.
"Can't say for sure if we'll make it. Shuchiin's team is pretty tough this year," Otani Shota said anxiously.
Shuchiin?
Takashi really didn't want to go now.
Because Nagisa was there.
Lately, Nagisa had been acting oddly. She could've gone to the fireworks festival with Maki. That way, one show would satisfy two girls, and he'd get double the rewards.
But no, she insisted on a private date.
So now he had to set aside a day just for her.
As Takashi was thinking about this, a ssage popped up on his phone.
Nagisa: [iji Jingu Stadium. Get here.]
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